Western Fly Fishing - My First B.C. Experience

The opportunity to do some fishing in British Columbia was exciting for me. However, I wasn't able to pick the time of year nor did I have much time to do some research and locate a guide before I arrived in Vancouver.

"It's tough fishing out there right now," Todd Scharf of Upstream Adventures admitted to me on the phone. "Everything is a good two weeks late so I can't guarantee that we'll get any fish." I was thankful for Todd's honesty, but at the same time, I wanted to experience fly fishing on a crystal clear western mountain river.

I located Todd after a frustrating search. Of course, it was my fault for not doing some better planning in the first place. I had decided to stay in the Vancouver area for three days following a conference that I attended in the city. On the first day after the conference, I decided to make a few phone calls to see what I could come up with. After leaving several phone messages and not getting hold of anyone, I was beginning to think that fly fishing in B.C., at least on this trip, was going to be out of the question.

One guiding company returned my call that evening but seemed to want to take me out sturgeon fishing. I pointed out that I really wanted to go flyfishing, but the guide seemed to want to steer me away from that. He didn't say that the flyfishing was not great or anything - he just seemed to think that perhaps I wouldn't be able to handle big rivers and big rods, with living in the East. He did promise to see if any of his fly guides were available and get back to me, but I never did hear from him again.

On my second day, with one full day in Vancouver left, I had pretty much resigned myself to the possibility that I was not going to enjoy any fishing on the West Coast. I hadn't brought any tackle along, so if I was going to be able to cast some flies, I would need the services of a guide who could provide tackle. With these thoughts in mind, I walked into Ruddick's Fly Shop where I explained my predicament to Kathy Ruddick.

Kathy immediately went to her telephone and made a couple of calls for me. She then provided me the names of some guides that might be available. With some hope, I went back to my hotel, called Todd, and dug into a selection of writings by Roderick Haig-Brown, and waited. About an hour later, I was speaking with Todd on the phone. He agreed to have dinner with me as he was on his way to Vancouver, but he did warn me about the fishing conditions.

Over dinner, I learned that Todd had been planning to leave for Calgary the following day but, I imagine he sensed my desire to fish and gratefully put off his trip for one day so that he could take me out for some possible steelhead and cutthroat action. The next morning, I drove to Mission, a little over an hour's drive from downtown Vancouver, where I met with Todd at his home. He had hitched up his jet boat to his SUV, and was ready to go. So was I.

I learned pretty fast how great a jet boat is. Essentially, a jet boat is a boat that uses a motor that, instead of being driven by a propeller, uses a water pump which forces a stream of water through an outlet at the rear of the motor. What this meant for me was that Todd could navigate through water that was only 4" deep, and we could fish areas that would otherwise be difficult to access. During the 9 to 10 hours we spent on the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers, we only saw two other anglers!

The scenery was magnificent! Imagine fishing in a crystal clear pure river with the grandeur of snow-capped mountains all around, eagles soaring majestically, multitudes of herons wading, and kingfishers marking potential pools to fish. For a guy like me who has never been west of the Rockies, the experience of just being there was awesome. It did not matter that there were no fish caught during the day.

Using the Sage 10' 8 wt., supplied by my guide, with 300 grain sink tip line, we fished hard for most of the day. Todd supplied all of the tackle including his own flies. The weather was quite cool, and there was nothing hatching on the river. We stuck mostly to egg, streamer and attractor patterns, and we did have some hits on a coho fry immitation towards the end of the day. A rather large fish broke a 6lb. leader after attacking the coho immitation but the excitement was short-lived.

I appreciated Todd's honesty with me, and his demeanour as a fishing guide was equally impressive. I liked the fact that he let me fish. If you have ever experienced an over-attentive waiter in a restaurant, you will understand that it can be equally as annoying to have someone hanging over you, masquerading their attempts at 'bragging about their knowledge' with constant harranguing advice. Todd was a great host - attentive when needed, yet he also seemed to sense my need to simply enjoy the river. The perfect kind of fishing partner. His local fishing knowledge and that of fly fishing in general was very obvious. Spending 8 or more hours alone with another person can either be a very trying experience, or one that will be remembered fondly for a long time. My first experience fishing on the West Coast is of the latter, and I know who I will be calling the next time I head to Canada's Pacific coast.

Of course, a bit more planning will go into the trip as well.